Tarek Skubal
speaker
151 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard 14 Nov
Tarek Skubal’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Nov 2025 with 1.
Appearances
Yeah, I think, you know, for sure. My wife probably won't like the answer, you know, the best. You know, our child being born is probably maybe a little bit higher than that. Yeah, but it's definitely close. You know, it was really cool, really special day all the way around friends and family, all that stuff. It was a ton of fun to celebrate a birthday with, you know, the Cy Young Award.
Yeah, am I allowed to cuss? Yeah, of course. Oh, yeah, okay, cool. I basically woke up and was like, I really hope they don't fuck it up. You know, that's what I thought. But, yeah, I didn't really know. Obviously, when the voting comes out, I didn't know if it was going to be unanimous.
Obviously, the other guys that were on the ballot obviously had great years, and you can make arguments all the way around for whoever you want to make arguments for. So that was pretty cool, too, to win it unanimously. I think that that's pretty special.
After. So I got the award. I mean, the back story on that is my wife at the beginning of the year – I kind of jokingly said, you can get it because I've always been wanting a new car for whatever reason. Every time I get a car, I just want another car. It's like that toxic thing that happens. Beginning of the year, I was all off-season. Last off-season, I was talking about getting a new car.
She goes, okay, if you win a Cy Young award this year, I'll buy you a new car. I said, all right, cool. I've been giving her grief about it like, hey, I'm going to win and you don't have a car for me. And I got done wrapped up with the interview stuff yesterday. And she's like, Hey, I want to go outside. I said, am I going to get like a pie in the face? What's going on?
Is this where the champagne goes? And, and then there's a car sitting in my driveway and I'm like, there's no way you just got me a car. And she's like, yeah, this is your car. And I was like, I didn't, I was so shocked. I didn't believe it. I mean, that was kept under wraps really well.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yes. That's an easy yes. You know, my name has been butchered my whole life. I stop even caring how people pronounce it. You call me Tariq Tariq. It doesn't matter to me anymore. And I don't think that they expect to see me.
So I just learned that last week. I got asked the question, like, your name means strike in Arabic. I go... I mean, cool. That's really cool. And it just so happens to be kind of my job is to throw strikes. So yeah, I thought that that's, I mean, that's pretty interesting.
I think when I came back from surgery last year, I mean, the second half of last year was pretty special and dominant as well if you look at the numbers.
it was it was a pretty special season and then I had a good healthy off season and when I got into spring training my body just felt good and you know throughout the whole season I think I made 31 or whatever starts I felt good for you know 31 starts which is I don't know if a lot of guys can say that and you know I felt good in between and there's some lulls and you take your bumps and bruises and stuff but I felt good and I think when you're healthy as an athlete and
you can just continue to work on things and continue to get better. And I think that that's, you know, where greatness happens. And I was able to do that for a full season.
So I think that that was just the most important thing, but I don't, I don't know if there was one start, you know, I go back to the Cincy game where I think I struck out 13 and that was pretty special just because that morning I was told I was an all-star. And then I went out and had that performance, you know, and I was like, this is all kind of happening.
I've never put my name or myself with All-Stars or with Cy Young guy. I just have never really associated myself with that. And then when that start happened, I'm like, holy shit, I am an All-Star. And then you start thinking of yourself like, I am actually that much. I'm good. I'm very good at this game. And that confidence was able to kind of ride with me the rest of the year.
I watched that start probably, I mean, 20 times after. I'm like, I couldn't get hit that day. You know, I'm like, this is unbelievable. It's a feeling that it's – I mean, I just got done golfing. It's like a pure, like, eight iron, you know, and it's like that's the best feeling in sports.
Yeah, that's the fastest. In game was like – I think it was 101.6 this year I think was to – It was Therese Hoskins, too, and he fouled it off. I'm like, dude, my hardest heaters are always fouled off. I'm like, why are you missing them? I'm throwing this as hard as I can for you to miss it, not to foul it off. But yeah, that was the hardest heater I've had.
I give it hell when it's 102, it's everything I got. There's nothing else in there. It's not like, oh, I'm saving 104 for next season. It's pretty much I'm throwing it as hard as I can. When my velocity spikes in games, it's because I'm actually just throwing the ball as hard as I can and not really worrying about where it's going as much.
Yeah. Whenever the pitch comes through, I just think, throw the shit out of this to this spot, and that's it. And then I throw it. That's really with every pitch. I think it's a pretty simple approach when I'm on the mound. It's like, fastball up and in, and I'm like, alright, throw the shit out of the fastball to this spot. Whether it goes there or not, it probably doesn't really ever go there.
I think that's one of the biggest... People are like, oh, I'm a command guy. I hit spots. It's like, no, you really never do. It's like 20% of the time you're hitting it. So, I mean, I'm focused on the spot. But if it goes there, awesome. If it doesn't go there, at least I gave it everything I had.
Yeah, I mean, first off, to have the respect of you and Dave that day when, what was that, in Cleveland?
Yeah, no, first off, to have the respect for that tweet to be formulated and sent out, I was like, holy shit, I made it. You know, I'm like, this is like making Pinching Ninja for the first time. You're like, holy shit, you know, I made it to this. So to get that, that was pretty cool. But, yeah, I think that, I mean, the Haas thing is pretty, I mean, I think it's a hilarious one.
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